Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” is coming out this year.
The film, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, will hopefully be ready for a splashy premiere at the Venice Film Festival. It’s already set up an October 18 release date for Spain. There’s also a more detailed synopsis for the film (via Variety) and it sounds like a very Almodóvar-esque melodrama:
“The Room Next Door” follows the story of Martha, a flawed mother working as a war reporter, and Ingrid, her spiteful daughter who is an auto-fictional novelist. While the mother and daughter are separated by a serious misunderstanding, another woman is the keeper of their pain and bitterness.”
The film is said to portray how “death, friendship and sexual pleasure can fight life’s horrors" according to its filmmaker. Almodóvar only wrapped shooting “The Room Next Door” last month— this could mean that it’ll be submitted for Venice at the very last minute.
The film, set in New York City, will be the filmmaker’s first full-length English-language film. He’d previously directed two shorts in English, “The Human Voice” and “Strange Way of Life.” Almodóvar has stated that they were just warm-ups to get him accustomed to directing English-speaking actors.
Sony Pictures Classics is in charge of U.S. distribution. Warner Bros. has just hopped on-board international rights with key international territories having been mapped out, including the U.K, Spain, Italy, Germany and Latin America.
Almodóvar has had a storied filmmaking career since his 1980 debut “Pepi, Luci, Bom.” His most notable works include “Talk to Her,” “The Skin I Live In,” “Pain and Glory,” “Broken Embraces,” and “Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown.”
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.